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Advent Rising is a 2005 third-person, intergalactic action and adventure video game, akin to a fast-paced action movie. In Advent Rising, the player is swept up in an ever-evolving series of sequences and events. Advent Rising was the first in a planned trilogy designed by Donald and Geremy Mustard, which also saw the development of a game that would take place alongside Advent Rising, called Advent Shadow for the PlayStation Portable (PSP). However the game's retail performance fell below expectations and became part of the publisher's financial tailspin. By the end of 2005 Majesco Entertainment had completely revised its business plan to focus towards handheld games and cancelled plans for the console-based Advent sequels as well as the PSP-based Advent Shadow. In June 2006, Donald Mustard posted a statement on the website of his new venture, Chair Entertainment Group, stating that he "would be happy to finish the series if the opportunity presented itself", but he does not currently hold the rights to do so. Chair Forum Post Presumably plans for novel tie-ins by Orson Scott Card have also been scrapped. A five-issue spin-off comic series was produced and is in comic stores at the time of this writing (see COMICS section below). Built on Epic Games' Unreal engine, Advent Rising offers up the legend that a powerful, ancient race will one day unite the universe. Millions of cultures from vastly distant worlds revere and hallow these mythological beings known as humans. One race, the Seekers, know humans actually exist and feel threatened by their potential power. Under the guise of benevolent explorers, the Seekers travel throughout the galaxy in a desperate attempt to eradicate any human society they unearth. Players assume the role of Gideon Wyeth, a remnant of the last human outpost, on the brink of discovering the incredible powers that lay dormant within him. Another race, the Aurelians, worship Humans as gods and, in a way, try to warn them of the Seekers. The title was released on May 31, 2005 for Xbox and on August 9, 2005 for Windows. The story of this game was created by Donald Mustard, and featured a script written by famed sci-fi writer Orson Scott Card and Cameron Dayton. The full orchestral soundtrack was done by Tommy Tallarico Studios. As of September 14 2006, Steam began offering Advent Rising for download as well as other games by Majesco. (Advent Rising on Steam)
PC version Due to publisher Majesco's international distribution agreement, the PC version of Advent Rising was held for release in the US and Europe until August of 2005. The PC version allowed additional time for bug fixing and resulted in a much more polished and improved gameplay experience. Plot Gideon Wyeth, space pilot and brother of famous war hero, Ethan Wyeth, has recently arrived at Edumea, a small outpost planet where a gigantic extraterrestrial spaceship has travelled to. The aliens' physical appearance is unknown and they have regularly sent pods to study humanity. After arriving at the space station, Gideon finds Ethan and they have a drink at a bar before going on the trip. However, a marine named Bud picks a fight with Gideon and Ethan helps him fight Bud as well as Bud's squad mates. When the fight is nearly over, Gideon's girlfriend Olivia arrives and berates Gideon and Ethan for starting a fight right before going on a diplomatic mission to the alien ship. Gideon goes to a mandatory refresher course on fire arms use and fights a round with AI-controlled constructs in a virtual reality area. Soon, Bud arrives with his squad and so does Ethan. Still angry about losing the fight, Bud's squad challenges Gideon and Ethan to a fight, which Gideon and Ethan win. Bud loses his temper and attacks Ethan, not with a stun pistol, but with an actual pistol. Bud's squad mates attempt to stop him and he misses Ethan because they throw him off. The marines and Ethan are separated from Bud and Gideon and Gideon can choose to kill Bud or stun him. This decision will reflect upon how the marines treat Gideon later in the game. So, it's best to stun him. They go to the alien ship and meet the other people going on the trip: Humanity's best diplomat, Ambassador Landwell, a Special Forces Major, and several marines. On the alien ship the aliens tell the humans that a group of aliens aggressive to humanity, the Seekers, will arrive within two days and destroy Edumea with the help of asteroids. The Major argues that Edumea will be able to hold back the invasion and Ethan agrees but Gideon is overwhelming negative about it. On the way back the seekers unexpectedly arrive and begin their assault. After crash-landing and wounding Ethan and Landwell, Gideon helps Ethan through the station while the Major stays with Landwell. Soon, they see seekers attacking people and they escape to the escape pod bay with the help of marines. Gideon wants to find Olivia and Ethan stays to hold an escape pod for them. Gideon moves through the station, assisting marines in their fight against the alien menace and saving various civilian and scientist personnel. He arrives to the part of the station Olivia is usually in and finds Egan, one of Olivia's associates, who tells him Olivia is in danger because the aliens are targeting scientists for scanning. He finds Olivia and a Seeker Commander, angry about the loss of most of his soldiers, finds the two. Gideon defeats the commander and they move back to the escape pods but Olivia wounds her leg on the way. When they get there the player must choose whether to save Olivia or Ethan. When Gideon escapes with Ethan/Olivia, he sees the other person being attacked by a seeker who scans him then the station breaks apart right after. They crash near a human outpost under siege and liberate a Scythe, an ATV that can fit a gunner, a driver, and passenger in the back. They move through to Bahr Han City, capital of Edumea, in order to find Admiral Torn, while assisting marines on the way. Gideon assists that Ethan/Olivia get medical attention and they leave. After moving through a besieged Bahr Han City, Gideon finds a marine named Paulsen and some others. They have a scythe. Gideon, Paulsen, and the others in the scythe go through the city until their scythe is wrecked by a Seeker dropship. However, Torn is soon found. He tells Gideon to get a ship and leave the planet quickly. Some disaster is imminent. Gideon gets Ethan/Olivia and the scythe and they go through Bahr Han as meteorites rain down. They find a fighter piloted by Marin Steel and they go with her as the planet explodes. Soon, they pick up nobody else on the radio and assume nothing is out there even though dozens of ships taking off can be seen through the city before it explodes. Gideon tells Marin they must find the Aurelians and Marin agrees. Soon, the same ship, with Kelehm, leader of the Aurelians, and Enorym, skilled fighter, finds them. Gideon discovers humanity's psychic skills and his are honed. A Seeker ship finds their ship after a while and a fight takes place as the Aurelian ship is abandoned in a desperate bid to take over the Seeker ship. This ends with a massive explosion caused by some weapon, causing the Seeker ship to crash into the nearby home planet of the Aurelians. Gideon gets onto some debris but finds the ship sinking with Ethan/Olivia and Marin inside. He goes to rescue them while fighting surviving Seekers but Ethan/Olivia drowns. After a short fight with Seeker scouts they arrive at the Aurelian Capital, where Kelehm tells the council, including a skeptical Seeker supporter, Sevan, about the genocide of humanity. A Seeker Ambassador arrives with some seeker soldiers and the council (except for Sevan) is massacred, including Kelehm. Enorym is wounded and Marin escapes unharmed. Gideon, wanting revenge, follows the Ambassador, killing his Seeker allies on the way. When he is about to kill the evil creature when it stalls him and a bounty hunter attacks Gideon. After a short fight, Gideon is about to be killed by the hunter but Enorym intervenes and the alien is killed. Enorym says that the Seeker ansible tower must be destroyed or the planet will be destroyed as Edumea was. Some saboteurs have disabled the tower temporarily but more forces must move in or the Aurelians are doomed. While en route, Gideon realizes the experimental H.A.Z.E blaster the Major gave him is the only thing that he has taken with him. Marin is forced by Gideon to stay behind with Banath, Enorym's most skilled warrior, and two others guarding him. After a short battle with scouts, Enorym learns that the saboteurs are dead and the ansible tower is operational. He takes a warrior named Sarkin with him in a gamble to stop it while Gideon, a warrior named Daenos, and another unnamed Felidic Warrior work to the same objective. After Enorym and Sarkin leave, Daenos spots some Seeker patrols and tells Gideon it is imperative that they be killed before reporting back to the tower. After a quick battle, they reach a sort of temple and Daenos and the other warrior bow. Gideon is confused and Daenos explains that this is a holy structure and the Seekers built the tower on this building deliberately, to lower the morale of the Aurelians. Daenos, the Felidic Warrior, and Gideon move through the temple, defeating seekers until they reach a bridge that Daenos says is ten thousand years old, and crumbling. They survive a gigantic seeker assault, move through the ansible tower, and disable it after fierce skirmishes with the seekers and their shock troops. The Felidic Warrior dies at some point in this battle Soon, the Seeker fleet swarms over the structure Daenos and Gideon are in. When they are about to be defeated, the Aurelian fleet arrives, ripping apart the smaller Seeker ships. Gideon and Daenos are picked up in a dropship containing Enorym and Banath. Sarken is assumed to be dead. Gideon is ecstatic about his victory and brags about it to Enorym. Daenos interrupts him, saying that he has received word that a coup has taken place in the capital city. Gideon suspects Sevan, but Banath reveals himself as a traitor when he says that only the rebels are true Aurelians and he stabs Daenos, killing him. Enorym protests and Gideon does also after seeing his brother-in-arms murdered. Banath knocks out Gideon and two other Aurelians capture Enorym. Now, left at the capital of Aurelia, Gideon is left without weapons, but has his telekinetic powers and his hand to hand combat. After briefly battling with Aurelian guards, Gideon finds Enorym, about to be sentenced to death by Sevan. Interrupting them, Gideon battles Banath and some guards, easily defeating them. He strangles Sevan and learns that the Aurelians loyal to the Seekers gave the Seekers Marin in exchange for the survival of their world. Enorym tells Gideon they must leave now in order to save Marin. Gideon drops a wounded Sevan to the ground and leaves, helping Enorym battle Aurelian guards in the halls of the senate. The guards retreat and Enorym tells Gideon that a final onslaught will overwhelm them, when instead, two Felidic Warriors enter and inform Gideon and Enorym that the rebels have been mostly defeated by those loyal to Enorym. However, the fight is still far from over and Enorym leads the fleet's assault on the island of Teran, where the last of the seekers are making a final stand. Gideon leads the ground assault on the beaches. After several skirmishes he discovers the prison where some Aurelians, along with Marin, are being held. he frees them but an ape-like beast ridden by another bounty hunter, a skinrider, attacks. A skinrider is an organism that takes over another creature by riding it's back. Marin and Gideon kill it, escape from Teran, and go to the council. On the trip there Gideon learns that Marin has some psychic powers too. They arrive at the council and the council is turned almost completely against the Seekers. Another Seeker Ambassador named Meg'r steps forward. Before he can respond, a godlike creature known as a Koroem enters and says it destroyed humanity because humanity tried to replicate it, because they look human. Depending on who you saved, it will look like the person you did not save. So if you saved Ethan it will look like Olivia, and vice versa. Enorym protests and is attacked and presumably killed by the Koroem. Gideon and Marin battle it and some Seeker backup that it has. Gideon battles it and defeats it but it transports him to an ice world and he collapses there but is saved by a goat-like stranger who tells him: "Come with me human. There is much to be done". Orson Scott Cards influence The overall story was created by Donald and Geremy Mustard. The dialog and screenplay however, is written by Orson Scott Card and Cameron Dayton. Card's influences are noticeable in the terminology which has been carried over from Ender's Game. The terms Vids, Buggers, and ansible are all references from his critically acclaimed novels (though the term ansible was coined by Ursula K. Le Guin, and was not actually added to the script by Card himself, but by Donald Mustard. See Card's comments on the matter). It is widely agreed upon that the story is the most celebrated feature of the game, with a cliffhanger ending meant to inspire interest in the future games in the series. Comics An avid comics fan, game creator Donald Mustard originally realized the story of Advent Rising in hand-drawn comic books. The release of the Advent Rising game was supported by a promotional one-shot comic book produced by DC Comics. The comic was written by Lee Hammock and drawn by Billy Dallas Patton as a direct tie-in to the action of the game. It was inserted free of charge within a handful of comic books published by DC. Another comic book, this time a series, grew out of the partnership between Majesco and 360ep, a young entertainment properties management concern founded by former Marvel Comics CEO Bill Jemas. The new comic series, called "Advent Rising: Rock the Planet" is written by Rob Worley, with layouts by Arthur Dela Cruz, pencils by Cliff Richards, inks by Dennis Crisostomo, colors by Cris Delara and letters by Simon Bowland. The comic is produced with oversight by Mustard and Jemas. This new series begins the franchise some ten years before the events of the game. It follows the adventures of Gideon, Ethan and Olivia in their formative, teenage years. The first issue was published on October 26th, 2005 and the fifth and final issue is set to release in June of 2006. 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